East Cobb Government

EAST COBB THIS WEEK: School ribbon-cuttings, summer library farewell, Dog Days Run, food truck & more

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Mountain View Elementary School
The long-awaited new Mountain View Elementary School campus will be christened on Thursday. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)

The last full week of summer vacation will be a busy one for East Cobb students and their parents, beyond shopping for clothes and supplies and getting oriented with the academic year ahead.

A few highlights from this week’s East Cobb Events Calendar:

  • The ribbon-cutting for the new Mountain View Elementary School takes place Thursday morning at 7:30 a.m. (yes, bright and early, but before the searing heat sets in) at its new location at 3151 Sandy Plains Road, just down the road from where it had been for decades;
  • It’s guaranteed to be hot and stifling Sunday afternoon when the new Walton High School campus (same location, 1590 Bill Murdock Road) will be dedicated, with ribbon-cutting starting at 2 p.m. An Open House takes place from 2:30-3:30 p.m.;
  • The final Paper Mill Village food truck of the summer will be Monday from 5 p.m.-8 p.m. in the main parking lot (255 Village Parkway). Admission is free and so is the live music; cost of food tickets vary according to vendor;
  • Two East Cobb library branches are holding a joint summer farewell party for students on Thursday from 2-4: The event is at Gritters Library (880 Shaw Park Road) and also includes staff from Mountain View Regional with crafts, games, snacks and other fun activities;
  • Early Saturday morning, the McCleskey-East Cobb Family YMCA (1055 East Piedmont Road) is the venue for the Dog Days Run presented by the Rotary Club of East Cobb. You can still register (race-day fee of $30 starting at 6:30 a.m.), and the organizers are looking for volunteers and sponsors.

There’s so much more on our Events Calendar to check out, and if you have an item to share, please e-mail: calendar@eastcobbnews.com.

Have a great week, and stay in touch!

East Cobb citizens sound off on proposed property tax millage rate increase

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Before any of the estimated 200 people could take their seats at the East Cobb Senior Center Wednesday for a town hall meeting devoted to a proposed property tax millage rate increase, they were handed a poster and an information sheet in strident opposition to what they were about to hear.

East Cobb realtors were giving out pink signs saying “No New Tax,” followed by a flyer from the Georgia Taxpayers United organization, urging homeowners sign a petition demanding Cobb commissioners “cut wasteful spending and lower taxes” when the 2017 millage rate is set next week.

Inside an overcrowded meeting room, commission chairman Mike Boyce was expecting residents to deliver some heat about his proposed millage hike of 0.13 mills to fully fund the remaining $13 million of a $40 million parks referendum approved by Cobb voters in 2008.

He got plenty of heat and pointed questions about the budget, county government spending, millage rates, the Atlanta Braves stadium deal with Cobb and more. Yet Boyce stood firm on his pledge to raise the millage rate—as he kept repeating, for the parks bond only—and wasn’t afraid to tangle with citizens in a feisty, and at times testy, meeting.

“I’m not going back on my word,” Boyce said, reminding those in attendance he made a campaign promise last year to fully fund the 2008 parks bond, which was never issued due to the recession. It wasn’t the central plank in his upset victory over then-chairman Tim Lee—how the Braves deal was handled was—but the parks funding its what’s gotten Boyce into some hot water seven months after taking office.

“It you’re asking me to change that position, I’m not going to.”

Read more

EAST COBB ZONING: Lidl Grocery, Powers Ferry-Terrell Mill cases to be continued

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At their monthly zoning hearing Tuesday morning, the Cobb Board of Commissioners voted to approve Lidl Grocery’s request to continue its rezoning application to redevelop the Park 12 Theatre site (previous ECN post here).

The case will be placed on the August zoning calendar. Another major East Cobb application, filed by SSP Blue Ridge, LLC, for a mixed-used development at Powers Ferry and Terrell Mill roads, has been continued to September by the Cobb zoning staff.

The Blue Ridge proposal is for a 21-acre retail, residential and commercial center stretching from the current location of Brumby Elementary School to the northwest intersection of Powers Ferry and Terrell Mill.

The anchor of the proposed development would a be Kroger Marketplace, replacing the current Kroger store on Powers Ferry at the southwest intersection of Delk Road.

We’ll update this post later with more East Cobb cases from today’s zoning meeting.

EAST COBB THIS WEEK: Summer library events; tax millage town hall; blood drive; business luncheons; greenways and trails meeting

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It’s not quite back to school—though it is hard to believe that’s exactly two weeks from today, on July 31—and the four branches of the Cobb County Public Library System in East Cobb have plenty of activities scheduled for the next two weeks.

We’ve included a good sampling of them in our East Cobb Events Calendar, and there are plenty more to peruse on the library system website. In addition to regular storytimes, this week’s events include a picnic at the Mountain View Regional branch, monthly adult book discussion groups at East Marietta and East Cobb, the monthly Gritters STEAM team event and so much more!

On Saturday, the East Cobb branch will feature a presentation on how to grow your own mushroom garden, with some expert advice from the Mushroom Club of Georgia.

Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce is taking some heat for proposing a tax millage increase, and on Wednesday he is holding a town hall meeting at the East Cobb Senior Center to solicit more input.

The Cobb school board is holding a final public hearing Thursday before voting on setting its tax millage rate for 2017.

The East Cobb Business Association and Northeast Cobb Business Association are holding their monthly luncheons on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. On Wednesday, the Ashley Homestore on Roswell Road is holding a Red Cross blood drive, and the East Cobb Lions Club will be offering free vision screenings.

If you missed last week’s public input meeting on the Cobb Greenways and Trails Master Plan at East Cobb Library, there will be another meeting Tuesday from 5-6:30 at the Covenant Presbyterian Church, Canton Road and Piedmont Road.

Another end-of-summer event for kids takes place Thursday at Terrell Mill Park. The Fairy House Workshop, presented by the Cobb Water System’s Watershed Stewardship Program, includes story-reading before kids ages 3-13 create their own fairy houses.

The Marietta Campmeeting continues every day this week through Saturday, with services at 11 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. and an ice cream social after Tuesday’s evening service, starting at 9:30 p.m. The final service takes place at 11 a.m. Sunday.

We’ll come back later this week with a preview of weekend events in East Cobb, including live entertainment and other community activities.

Please feel free to send your items—including photos, flyers, maps and PDFs if you wish—to: calendar@eastcobbnews.com, and we’ll post them promptly.

Have a great week, and please stay in touch!

 

Lower Roswell resurfacing expansion, Willeo Creek bridge design approved by Cobb commissioners

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Lower Roswell Road Water Main Project
One-lane traffic on Lower Roswell Road as part of the East Cobb Pipeline Project remains around the bridge over Sope Creek. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)

Two important road items of interest to East Cobb motorists got the green light Tuesday from the Cobb Board of Commissioners, one immediate and that’s long-term.

The first concerns the repaving along Lower Roswell Road following the completion of the East Cobb Pipeline Project.

The commission approved a change order request to expand an existing repaving project to include the 2.08-mile stretch from Old Canton Road to Indian Hills Parkway, and it won’t cost taxpayers any additional funding.

Instead, the estimated cost of $593,095 will come out of already-approved money (via the 2016 SPLOST) as part of the Cobb DOT’s contract with Baldwin Paving Co., which has been repaving 25-30 roads around the county.

The money is available due to underruns in the overall Baldwin contract, according to Cobb DOT.

“The road when it’s finished will be a great improvement,” East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott said before the 5-0 vote.

In another 5-0 vote, the commission approved an engineering design contract with Gresham Smith and Partners for $483,359 for replacement of the Willeo Road bridge over Willeo Creek. It’s a joint project with the City of Roswell, with each jurisdiction kicking in around $213,900 each. Roswell is spending an additional $55,474 for design work for a multi-use trail boardwalk that will connect to the new bridge.

Multi-use trails along Lower Roswell also reach the Cobb side of the bridge and continue westbound, close to Johnson Ferry Road, where bicycle and pedestrian trails are proposed as part of the Johnson Ferry Urban Design Plan approved in 2011.

 

Loyal Q and Brew liquor waiver to go before Cobb commissioners

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loyal q and brew restaurant
Loyal Q and Brew is opening soon at Parkaire Landing Shopping Center with an ownership group formerly with the Taco Mac chain. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)

UPDATED 9:33 a.m. Tuesday: This item has been taken off the agenda. Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce said at the start of today’s meeting that the applicant’s attorney has had a death in the family and is unable to attend. Boyce did not indicate when the matter will be placed back on the agenda.

The owners of a proposed new smokehouse and brewery in East Cobb will have their pouring license application heard Tuesday by the Cobb Board of Commissioners.

The meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the 2nd floor meeting room at the Cobb BOC Building, 100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta.

Loyal Q and Brew, which is slated to open at Parkaire Landing Shopping Center (next to the Sellars Goodyear store and across from Ted’s Montana Grill), needs a distance waiver from the commission since its location is 440 feet from the the East Cobb Library and 170 feet from nearby residences.

Those distances fall within the range of a county ordinance requiring waivers for alcoholic serving licenses.

The Cobb License Review Board voted 4-0 without community opposition on June 22 to recommend approval of the waiver. In addition to Ted’s, seven other restaurants and the Parkaire Kroger also sell beer and wine, as well as The Wine Shop, a full-service liquor retailer in the same shopping center.

The co-owner of Loyal Q is Susie Addo, formerly part of the Taco Mac partnership. According to the application, Loyal Q would prepare smoked meat products on the premises and serve craft beer, wine and liquor.

The restaurant would employ around 40 people and would be open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 11 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday. The application also states the establishment estimates that 70 percent of its revenue will come from food sales, and 30 percent from alcohol sales.

Here’s a link to Tuesday’s full meeting agenda, which includes a public hearing for the 2017 Cobb millage rate.

EAST COBB THIS WEEK: Tax millage rate hearings; women’s networking; Marietta Campmeeting; Bradley’s car show

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The Cobb Board of Commissioners and the Cobb Board of Education this week are holding required public hearings as they prepare to set their 2017 millage rates.

The commissioners will hold hearings tonight at 6:30, and at 9 a.m. on Tuesday and at 7 p.m. on July 25, the date they’re slated to vote on the millage rate. Those hearings will be in the board’s 2nd floor meeting room at the Cobb BOC Building, 100 Cherokee St. in downtown Marietta.

The school board is holding hearings Tuesday at 10 a.m., during its monthly work session, and again at 6 p.m. in the board room of the Cobb County School District main office, 514 Glover St. in Marietta. East Cobb events calendar

The school board will have final hearings on July 20 at 1:30 p.m. and at 7 p.m., when it’s scheduled to vote on its 2017 millage rate.

State law mandates the hearings if local property tax digests rise and millage rates aren’t rolled back, prompting a tax increase (here’s a year-by-year chart of Cobb tax digest totals dating back to 2012, when the county began rebounding from the recession. Here’s the BOE’s millage rate notice and 5-year history of its property tax levy).

Elsewhere in this week’s East Cobb Events Calendar, there’s a new women’s business networking group meeting Thursday at Red Sky Tapas Bar that pledges a “no compete” atmosphere. Friday marks the 180th renewal of the Marietta Campmeeting, with an opening picnic and service scheduled from 6-9 p.m. The venerable tradition continues through July 23, and if you haven’t been, or even if you’re not religious, it’s a tremendous experience. I covered this years ago during my newspaper days, and I highly recommend it.

On Sunday’s Bradley’s Bar & Grill on Lower Roswell Road is holding a summer fest and car show from 3-7 p.m., and if you want your car to take part, you have until Wednesday to register. It’s all for a very good cause.

We’re just getting our engines revved up here at East Cobb News and want to make our calendar listings are simply the best in the community. Please feel free to send your items—including photos, flyers and PDFs if you wish—to editor/publisher Wendy Parker at: eastcobbnewsnow@gmail.com.

Have a great week, and please stay in touch!